Brewers NLDS Preview: 5 Braves Players To Worry About In The Series

4. RP Will Smith

The former Brewers workhorse reliever will make his way back to Milwaukee, this time to try to shut down the Crew’s bats. Will Smith played with the club from 2014-2016 and he’s actually yet to pitch more innings with any other franchise than he has with Milwaukee (151.0).

Back in 2014, Smith appeared in more games than any pitcher in the NL with 78. On August 1, 2016 he was traded from the Brewers to the San Francisco Giants for right-hander Phil Bickford, who was No. 1 on MLBPipeline.com‘s list of the Giants’ Top 30 Prospects at the time and catcher Andrew Susac.

Now with Atlanta, Smith has been one of a few different bright spots for a bullpen that possesses the 10th lowest ERA in baseball (3.97). During the regular season, he led the majors in games finished with 60 and he converted 37 of 43 save opportunities. Smith finished one spot above Josh Hader in saves, but also had eight more opportunities than the Brewers closer.

Will Smith is a three-pitch pitcher, utilizing a four-seam fastball, a slider and a curveball that he’ll throw on occasion. His best pitch is probably his slider that is a go-to put-away pitch, especially to left-handed hitters. He throws his slider almost 42% of the time compared to 47% of the time for his fastball so if you can pick up the spin or differentiating arm angle as a hitter, you should know what’s coming.

His fastball hovers around 92.8 mph but it does have a good amount of horizontal movement to it.  Overall, he won’t overpower you with velocity or insane movement, but he will find ways to locate pitches that will make you whiff.

5. SS Dansby Swanson

Another key piece of the Atlanta Braves team is Dansby Swanson. Swanson is an integral part of one of the best infields in baseball and has really come into his own in 2021. After a successful 2020 season where he even received an MVP vote point, he added some pop to his bat in 2021. Swanson launched the fifth most home runs by any shortstop this season (27), and 10 more than his previous high in a single season which came back in 2019. His average did drop almost .30 points from a year ago but he was a big reason why the Braves were top five as a team in slugging percentage.

In his playoff career, he’s been a very productive hitter with much of his success coming in the NLDS and NLCS last year. Overall in postseason baseball he’s slashing .302/.357/.556 with three home runs, 11 RBI’s and a cWPA (Championship Win Probability Added) of 9.7%.

While his Statcast numbers aren’t anything too spectacular in 2021, what does stand out is his barrel percentage being in the 76th percentile and his chase rate being in the 73rd percentile. Looking at his splits, he’s got fairly similar numbers against right-handers and southpaws but the last month has been a struggle for him. He’s only hitting .176 in September and October with 36 strikeouts in 28 games played. He will be a guy that the Brewers need to find a way to get out in the series.

Obviously, there are more key pieces to a team that won their division, but these are some of the main players to be wary of as a Brewers fan.

The Braves are not a team to be overlooked and with one of the best infields in baseball, they can hang a crooked number on any pitching staff quickly. If Milwaukee finds a way to suppress these five players, they should be just fine in the series.